SESSION 2 First Civilizations and

Roman Heritage

SPANISH CIVILIZATION AND CULTURE

CEA BARCELONA GLOBAL CAMPUS

SUMMER 2007 PROGRAMME

Instructor: Victor Lapuente Gine

e-mail: vlapuente@ceacs.march.es
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

OUTLINE OF THE SESSION

1) First Civilizations

2) First Invasions

3) The Roman Heritage

 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

1) First Civilizations

-The origin of the name ‘Spain’:

Spain itself takes its name from the Latin Hispania. The
word is probably Phoenician in origin, derived from
shepham probably meaning 'coast or island of rabbits'.
The rabbit, at the time, was endemic and virtually
restricted to the Peninsula. The oldest existing fossil of a
rabbit is a specimen from 2.5 million years ago found in
Granada. In fact, the rabbit did not really expand from
Iberia until the Phoenicians, began to export it around the
Mediterranean
Earliest Human Movements to Spain
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-The origins of the population of the Iberian peninsula are not clear

-First clue: ATAPUERCA settlements.

http://www.atapuerca.com
about 800.000 BC.
“homo antecessor”: hunter-gatherers (and cannibalism)
(Go to the webpage and browse the “Time Machine” section, look at
1,000,000 years ago -on Atapuerca Man)

-100,000-40,000: Neanderthals

-40,000-10,000: during the last Ice Age, Neanderthals were

displaced by the so-called Cro-Magnon humans (homo sapiens
sapiens)

-The Economist Article: Miss Adam Smith

1.What is the originality of the article?
2.Which are the main flaws of the argument?
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Paintings in Altamira and from around 15,000 BC.

http://www.cantabriainter.net/cantabria/lugares/
cuevasaltamira.htm

-While in the Cantabric one may find more pictures

related with the animals, those in the Mediterranean are
more linked with people, humans

Conclusion: Evidence of very early population in the

Peninsula
The Cave Paintings of Altamira
15,000 BCE
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Around 5,000 BC, the ‘Neolithic Revolution’.

-The first sedentary communities in Spain: Catalonia, the

Levante and Andalusia.

Megalithic Construction: evidence of increasingly

advanced societies
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Who was living in Spain from 2,500 BC onwards?

Different people in different areas

• Tartessos
-Herodotus: ‘the western Dorado’
-From 10th to 5th century BC
-Settled in the southwest valleys of the Tinto &
Guadalquivir River.
-Area rich in copper and silver.
-Evidence of trade with other parts in the
Mediterranean & Great Britain.
-They dissapeared probably for the appearance of
Iron and the expansion of Phoenicians and
carthaginians.
The Iberian territory
Where am I?
The Galician Coast
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

2. Celtas
-in the WEST of the Peninsula
-they left important evidences like Castros (round
fortifications).
http://www.pbase.com/jlfernan/castro_san_ciprian_de_las
-influence in the culture and mythology of peninsular
northeast.

3. Iberos
-in the EAST of the Peninsula.
-evidences: Dama de Elche y de Baza funerary statues.
http://www.ffil.uam.es/catalogo/madrid/bendala.htm

http://www.dearqueologia.com/dama_baza.htm
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

2) First Invasions

What later would become Spain was invaded different times:

6. Greeks
7. Phoenicians
8. Carthaginians
9. Romans
Conquering Empires
Empuries – 6 Century BC
th
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

4) The Roman Heritage

Why did the Romans conquer Spain?

-Because of peripheral imperialism

-Raw materials and agriculture

Hispania – Roman rule of Iberia
▪ Hispania
Citerior
▪ Hispania
Ulterior
197 BC

▪ Baetica
(Cordoba)
▪ Tarraconensis
(Tarragona)
▪ Lusitania (Merida)

27 AD
 Contributions of Rome to Hispania
• Completely integrated part of the Roman Empire (although
constantly warred with native groups)
• Language
• Law
• Religion
• Art
• Public Engineering
• Education
But
Romanization was slow, and unsteady, mainly due to isolation
caused by geography. Some commented it had a ‘superficial
veneer’.
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Society during the Roman period

Society was divided in roman aristocrats, descendents of

the indigenous aristocracy, colonizers and indigenous.

Agricultural society

Distribution of land in Latifundios (big chunks of land)

Latifundios were a payment to high-rank officials in the

army
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Romanization and Urbanization

Not homogeneous. South: faster and more cohesive.

North: more disperse and later.

Creation of the first big cities in Spain: Emerita Augusta,

Caesaragusta, Tarrago, Gades
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-Roman Monuments:
Acueducto de Segovia (119 archs), Arco de Bara, Puente
de Alcantara (45m., the highest of the Roman Empire)
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-The Roman Law

Still used and studied today

Precedent for the feudal system in which the lords protect

their vassals.

Justice was administered through conventus juiridi,

administrative districts.

The Romans first divided Hispania in 2 sections, Ulterior

and Citerior

Augustus altered this arrangement, creating 3 provinces:

Hispania Tarraconensis (Tarraco), Hispania Baetica
(Cordoba) and Hispania Lusitania (Emerita Augusta)
 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

-The long decadence of the Roman Hispania

Hispania was stable until the end of the II AC.

First problems: Barbarians and African invasions,

Internal rebellions, power struggles

In 255 AD, there was the first important Germanic

invasion

They attack cities of the north like Tarragona

Cities become smaller and fortified

 SESSION 2 First Civilizations & Roman Heritage

Spain becomes Christian

The end of the Roman Hispania is between 407-409,

when several Germanic groups entered in the Spanish
peninsula

Immediate effects: anarchy and insecurity; mass

migrations and ‘vandalism’